THE introduction of legislation in the Seanad yesterday for the establishment of the Tallaght hospital next year was a historic occasion, said Mr Shane Ross (FG). It was the end of a long battle which had been fought principally by the Adelaide Hospital for the protection of its Protestant ethos.
The Bill, introduced by the Minister of State for Health, Mr Austin Currie, allows the boards of three hospitals - the Adelaide, Meath and National Children's. Hospital, to amalgamate and become the Tallaght hospital.
Mr Ross said this was a battle for the protection of the rights of minorities and their ethos in the Republic of Ireland.
"This is a great day for pluralism in this particular part of the country", he said.
"It is a day we feared that many would never see. Time after time, successive Government Ministers had promised to do something about the ethos of the Adelaide Hospital and had done nothing.
"I congratulate the board of the Adelaide Hospital and the Minister and all those involved in overcoming what appeared to be insuperable obstacles at certain stages.
"What has been achieved is about the protection of the Protestant ethos. The new regulations concerning the governing of the hospital ensures that people of all denominations, whether they are Presbyterian, Church of Ireland, Roman Catholic or whoever, they will have that protection.
"The fear was that the Protestant minority would not have that protection in the Adelaide's new status.
"That fear has now been removed and when this Bill is passed that fear will be gone and gone forever."
Mr Ross said in Northern Ireland this was seen as the litmus test.
As it was debated, people in the North with a narrow outlook would say "There they are, at it again. They won't give the Protestant minority the sort, of rights that they feel they need".
Mr Currie, in introducing the Bill, said the people of Tallaght deserved a major hospital of the quality being provided. It was important that they ensured that the detailed arrangement for the management and transfer of the hospitals to Tallaght and the establishment of services in the new premises in the middle of next year would proceed without delay or setbacks.
He added that it was a unique occasion when the House was facilitating the joining together of three historical institutions which for many years, with their diverse backgrounds and history, had provided health services to the people of Dublin and the country at large.
The Minister said that in preparing the Draft Order, the Minister for Health and his Department were very conscious that the hospitals transferring to Tallaght were three very different institutions each with its own background and ethos.
It was important that each of the three hospitals was enabled to enter into an arrangement where it felt its interests and its honourable traditions were repeated and acknowledged.
Mr Dick Roche (FF) said there would be generous recognition of the contributions of these three hospitals in the board of the new Tallaght Hospital.
He felt the new hospital might spark a reaction among Northerners. This new hospital had come about by compromise and it showed clearly that compromise was better than conflict.